Apparatus for treating wet peat or turf.



PATENTED SEPT. 4, 1906.

A M. EKENBERG.

APPARATUS FOR TREATING WET PEAT OR TURF.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 6. 1903.

2 SHEETS-SHEET l.

WITNESSES: INVENTOR flan-L9; I

PATENTED SEPT. 4, 1906.

M. EKENBERG.

APPARATUS FOR TREATING WET PEAT OR TURF.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 6, 1903.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

APPARATUS FOR TREATING WET PEAT OR TURF.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Sept. 4, 1906.

Application filed July 6, 1903- Serial No. 164,275.

To (0Z6 whom, it m/(Ly concern:

Be it known that I, h/IARTIN EKENBERG, a subject of the King of Sweden, residing in Stockholm, Sweden, have invented certain Improvements in Apparatuses for Treating Wet Peat or Turf, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to apparatuses employed for treating peat or turf preparatory to pressing it into the form of bricks for fuel. In order to prepare the peat for being thus formed into bricks or blocks, it is important to fully destroy or change the slimy matters contained in the peat and also to effect this object in an economical manner. Heretofore, so far as known, the cost of effecting this removal or destruction of slimy matter has been unduly excessive, and it is the object of the present invention to provide an apparatus whereby itmay be effected in a practical and economical manner.

The apparatus will be hereinafter fully described and its novel features carefully defined in the claims.

In the accompanying drawings, which illus trate an embodiment of the invention, Figure 1 is a side elevation of the apparatus, partly brokenaway at the. left to disclose the interior construction. Fi 2 is an end view, on a larger scale, of one of the blocks 2 detached. Fig. 3 is a section at linea b in Fig. 2, showing a part of the block 2 and parts of the tubes 1 in section. Fig. 4 is an end elevation of the apparatus showing the end at the left in Fig. 1. Fi 5 is a sectional plan, the section being taken in the plane of the conveyer-screws 8.

Before proceeding to describe the apparatus which forms the object of the application it will be well to explain briefly what the apparatus is intended to accomplish and in what manner it operates. The quantity of water contained in fresh peat or turf varies from eighty-five to ninety-six per cent., and such peat contains slimy matters which must be destroyed or changed in character in order that the peat may be put in condition for pressing. To first remove practically all of the water from the peat and then char it is a relatively costly operation-that is, costly as compared with the market value of the dried and pressed product. The present apparatus is designed to take the raw or fres 1 peat containing, for example, over ninety per cent. of water, to pass it through a tube or conduit in a substantially continuous manner and to heat the wet peat during its passage or at one point in its passage up to a temperature above 100 centigrade. This serves to digest the peat in water under heat and pressure, and thus destroy the slimy matters therein. The mixture of water and charred peat coming from the apparatus will readily separate by deposition, the water running off and leaving the sediment of charred peat to be pressed in a known way.

In the drawings,'1 designates a plurality of tubes extending across and through the combustion-chamber of a furnace F, and 2 designates blocks connected withthe respective ends of said tubes. The blocks which, directly receive the ends of the tubes formthe side walls of the-combustion-chamber of the furnace. In Fig. 1 there are three blocks at each side of the furnace. The tubes may, as seen in Fig. 3, be screwed into the blocks, or the connection can be effected in any suitable way. Through the blocks extendcylindrical bores 10, which form c ontinuations of the re+ spective tubes, the whole formingacontinuous conduit. The blocks may be connected together by bolts, as seen at 2 in Fig. 1. Be-

yond the end of the first block 2 isachamber or receptacle 3 for the supply of material to the upper tier of conduits, and outside of or beyond the chamber 3 is a chamber or receptacle 4 to receive the material from the lower tier of conduits after it has been treated.

In each conduit is a screw conveyer 6, and the shafts 5 of these conveyers extend out across the receptacles 3 and 4, each shaft being provided with a worm-wheel 11 gearing with a worm or screw 7. As the wormwheels of the respective tiers of conveyers gear with opposite sides of the screw 7, those of one tier will rotate in a direction. opposite to those of the other. For example, as seen in Figs. 1 and 4, the material from the chamber 3 is carried to the right through the upper tier of conduits, and the material discharged into chamber 4 comes by way of the lower tier of conduits from the chamber 3 at the right. As seen at the left in Fig. 1, tubes 12 carry the material from the lower conduits across the chamber 3 into the chamber 4. The raw material may be supplied to the chamber 3 and removed from the chamber 4 by suitable conveyors S.

The blocks .2 may be cast-iron with the bores in them so disposed as to form alined prolongations of the respective heating-tubes 1. The object is to provide a construction through the furnace will be retained by reaed against direct heat.

son of the resistance offered by the conveyers and the wet material acked in the end portions of the conduits, t 's packing preventing the esca e of steam.

It Wil be understood that this apparatus is in no sense a drier, as there is no escape of steam or moisture from the conduits through which the material is forced or moved. The

novel features reside in employing a conduit of sufficient length to enable a temperature of above 100 centigrade to be produc d at an intermediate portion of its length without blowing-out the contents of the end portions of the conduit, and in employing a construction whereby these end portions are protect- The intermediate portion of the conduit, which is to be directly eated, may be of larger diameter than the end portions in order that the mass may move anore slowly through this portion of the conuit.

Any satisfactory form of conveyor may be employed in the conduits.

Having thus described my invention, I claim' 1. An apparatus for the purpose specified, having a long conduit, means for -moving peat in a substantially continuous manner through said conduit, means for heating an- 2. An apparatus for the purpose specified,

having a long conduit, means for heating the middle portion only of said conduit by direct heat, a conveyer for moving Wet peat through said conduit, and means for protecting the remaining end portions of the conduit from direct heat, said conduit having its protected end portions of such length that the Wet material therein together with the conveyer,

will prevent the escape of steam from the intermediate heated portion of the conduit.

3. An apparatus for the purpose specified, having a furnace F, pipes 1, which form intermediate portions of conduits, extending across the combustion chamber of said furnace, a plurality of metal blocks 2, having in them bores 10 which connect with, are alined with, and form continuations of the respective pipes 1, said bores and pipes forming a plurality of continuous conduits, screw-conveyers in the respective conduits for conveying wet peat through the same, and means for operating said conveyers, the length of the pipes 1 not exceedin one-third of the entire length of the condults.

In witness whereof I have hereunto signed my name in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

MARTIN EKENBERG.

Witnesses ROBERT APELGREN, AUG; SORANSEN. 

